Frank Marchis

Editors’ Note: The Summer 2014 issue of California magazine is called “This is the End.” Every day this week: a different catastrophic scenario.

It started with a flash.

At a few minutes past 9:00, one crystalline morning last February, a burst of light brighter than 30 suns illuminated Chelyabinsk, Russia, a southern industrial city known mostly for making tractors. Thanks to smartphones, surveillance cameras, and Russian auto-dash cams, we have a voluminous record of what happened next.

CALIFORNIA Classic

A year ago, the government reopened after a two-day shutdown. In its wake, we looked closely at Trump’s influence, asking questions like: How much of an impact is Trump exerting on our underlying institutions? Are his actions a pause in government-as-usual, or could they change the essential nature of the American polity?

Said Paul Prierson, UC Berkeley professor of political science, in 2018, “I’m especially worried about the corrosion of our system of checks and balances, given that people are exhibiting loyalty first and foremost to party and coalition rather than the institutions they represent.”